


Let's compare scars, I'll tell you whose is worse

by Jexca



Category: Carmilla (Web Series), The Last of Us
Genre: Angst, F/F, Gay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-17
Updated: 2017-08-17
Packaged: 2018-12-16 08:56:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11825352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jexca/pseuds/Jexca
Summary: I'm always a slut for Danny Lawrence. And The Last of Us. That's it. That's the whole fanfic.Jk. I love The Last of Us universe and I really feel like Danny Lawrence is a great character who hasn't been thoroughly explored in the Carmilla universe, and I've been growing tired of all the hate she's always getting, so I decided to start writing something on two things I love. Personal headcanon taking place somewhere near the beginning of The Last of Us Part II, though we don't have much information about it yet.Ellie takes part in recon missions in the surroundings of Tommy's town with her long-term best friend Danny Lawrence and ends up faced with an unexpected find that might flip her world upside down.Edit: I've just decided I'm putting as many of my favorite gay characters I can in this fic, so if you're into Wynonna Earp, or even Life is Strange (I'm falling for that game), trust me, the next chapters will be a feast for your reading eyes!





	1. Chapter 1

A few rain drops slowly crawl their way down the leaves of the trees scattered throughout the woods around the dam. The floor still soaks from the constant storms that have been keeping all of the inhabitants of the village behind the walls. Only a few survivors have been chosen and allowed to go on sporadic recon walks beyond the safety zones.  
Ellie, along with two others now marching by her side, is one of the young citizens recruited by Tommy to go on the afternoon supply searches. They have nearly everything in there - from beds to fire, water, modest crops, some animals to provide food and milk and, most of all, electricity - but every now and then some of them are asked to go search outside in hope to find more survivors, willing to join their people. Ellie looks down at the floor, her All-stars gradually soaking wet from the rain water. This morning, when Tommy knocked on their door doing his best to make enough room for his dangerous request, Ellie could almost hear Joel's blood boil from where she was standing. She knew how much Joel wished he could have said no, and then shut the door closed right on his brother's face, but Ellie has felt trapped ever since they got back from the hospital many, many years ago, and they've argued about that many, many times before. She's probably the best bow woman in town. In fact, she'd be number one, were it not for the skill and sleight of hand of her best friend - one of the two people walking side by side with her at the moment. And Joel knew they'd have better chances if she were outside.  
Ellie has the reflex, but not the speed to act upon a threat the other girl has. They had been training for nearly two weeks before the events of this morning.

It all started with gunshots. Very, very far in the distance. Almost nobody could hear them, until they were too loud to the point where they made an old man patrolling on top of the walls wake up from his nap. He desperately went down the ladders and ran to Maria, crossing the whole village in a jiffy, warning everybody on the way about the likely upcoming attack. They have all been paranoid since the slaughter that took place that day Tommy's older brother broke through the safety of their sanctuary, asking him to take care of a certain girl. As soon as Ellie heard the first shot being fired near the entrance that day, she knew they would never be able to step on that village without being held responsible for all those deaths again. She's seen the fear in the citizens' eyes. Some of them have shown blatant disgust towards the very idea of her and Joel. Some were not close enough to the ones who died in the assault, therefore, they showed compassion. Ellie's gotten all the redemption she could from them.

"Guess you wish you had come with your combat boots now, huh?"  
Danny's voice finds its path through Ellie's thoughts.  
"I'm sorry?" she replies, a bit startled.  
Danny points at her All-stars.  
"Your high tops. Reckon you won't be wearing them next time"  
Ellie lets out a chuckle.  
"Yeah. And you did warn me about the rain, mud and shit"  
"But you never listen to what I say, do you?"  
"Not even once in a lifetime."  
Danny laughs.  
"Worry not, baby girl! We're gonna find you some tasty spoiled chocolate powder and some dirty pair of socks for you to get those feet warm once we're back home. I promise"  
"You mean, like, I'm supposed to shove my feet in the hot chocolate???" Ellie jokes.  
"And you mean 'you promise' the same way you promised you were finally gona make a move on that girl you have a crush on, Dan?" the third member of the group turns to them, then proceeds to walk backwards.  
Always leading the way, David is a slim, tall boy with light brown hair going all the way down to his shoulder, and a scarce beard forming on the countor of his chin. Son of Tommy's best friend Will. AKA Ellie's other best friend. Judging by his voice and walk, you'd definitely believe David is gay, but, jokes on you, everyone in this group is into chicks. Danny has an evergrowing crush on a girl she barely talks to. David's at every gathering in the village, most of the times hitting on any girl with lips on her mouth, and Ellie, well... Ellie's quite more reserved, even though she's the one who shows less difficulty when talking to whoever comes her way.

There isn't any specific kind in town that catches her eye. Danny is quite hot, and they've kissed before while playing games, but they have a very solid and long-lasting friendship, and Ellie has gradually grown more fond of friendships as the best sort of human relationship - after that nameless bond between her and Joel.  
Sometimes she thinks of Riley. Of what they could have had, were it not for life and its whole happening thing. She's never been quite sure if she did the right thing kissing her that night. But whenever she starts regretting it, she remembers. She sees Riley right in front of her, throwing her firefly pendant to the ground, the music blasting, covering the groans of the infected. Riley was willing to give up being a firefly just so things could go back to normal between her and Ellie. Those memories were still there. They still are. Coming back to her every now and then, when she has nothing else to think about.  
"Will I ever allow myself to fall for someone after that?" she often thinks to herself. "Am I seriously supposed to endure all the pain if they leave or are taken from me if it happens again?"  
She doesn't wanna think about it. People in town are not even interesting to the point where she'd see herself spending a minute of her life idealizing any sort of romance with them without finding herself stupid. Sound like arrogance, doesn't it? Feeling like you're too good for the options that are given to you. But she's read enough to know people go far beyond sexual attraction, and not wanting to date anyone around her is no big deal if she respects them and likes them as people. Simple as that.  
When she sees Danny talking about that girl, Lara, Laura - she can never get her name straight - she can't actually relate, but she feels happy for Danny finding something to keep her heart busy with, nevertheless.  
She's never let herself think if she wants that to happen to her. She just, goes with the flow.

"Alright, all eyes wide open now, we're approaching the site" David says, slowly bringing his rifle up to his sights.  
"Roger that" Ellie replies in a robotic voice, readying her bow.  
David groans.  
"Could you please quit the joke? You're holding a BOW! You'd never get in the army with some melee shit like that" he complains.  
"It's a firearm if you don't have to run towards the enemy like a fucking stalker, you uncultured swine" Danny shouts, Ellie and David laugh.  
"You know what? You just gave me one hell of an idea, Lawrence" Ellie continues. "What if I light up my arrow with some fire?"  
"You're kidding me, right?" Danny answers. "You think you're in some Lord of The Rings battle or something?"  
"You've got to admit that would be hella cool, though" David adds.  
"Admit what?" Danny asks.  
"Y'know" he manages to make a gesture like fire burning with one of his hands. "SWEESH! Setting the infected on fire"  
Danny shrugs.  
"You both look like two five-year-olds sometimes, you know, the kind that spends the whole day burning ants with magnifiers"  
"Oh, look at her, all grown up and stuff" Ellie mocks.  
"Next time we play hide and seek, we ain't calling you" David jokes, putting his tongue out. He lands heavily on a dry branch, causing a loud snap to spread around, reaching the abandoned houses and stores a few meters ahead.  
"Shh, sh" Ellie scolds them, pulling David by his shoulder, taking command of the group.  
"Ellie, I have the rifle" he whispers harshly.  
"Yeah, and even if you had endless ammo you wouldn't be able to cause half the damage she's able to cause with that bow" Danny replies.  
"Thank you" Ellie says, not bothering to look back at them.  
"They heard the gunshots 4 or 5 hours ago, we shouldn't have waited to come only after lunch" David cries out.  
"The man is right" Danny says. "Don't you think they're all gone by now, Williams?" she asks.  
Ellie thinks for a moment.  
"I don't know" she sighs. "If they've already left, they're probably peaceful. Maybe they just got jumped by some clickers and had to spend part of their ammo. If they were hostile, they would have gone for our gates."  
"If that's so, we can offer them shelter" Danny adds.  
"So where are we going first?" David asks.  
Ellie wonders. They've already searched and locked up all the 6 houses in her field of view before. She sees a yellow grocery street to her left - of course, all of these buildings with their backs turned to them, since the street itself where a few unsearched cars lie, is beyond the line of houses. She and Joel went there once to look for supplies. There wasn't much left, but as far as her memory goes, she remembers there's a basement or an attic there.  
"There, that store. It's a nice hideout, all the other houses are locked" she explains.  
Danny and David nod, and they start walking towards the small place ahead.  
When they get to the backdoor, Ellie carefully pulls the doorknob, doing her best to make the minimum noise possible, and David rushes to position himself inside as soon as the door's open.  
With a flashlight attached to his gun, he quickly peeks inside the place. The light hits the wall forming no threatening shadows.  
"All clear" he whispers.  
The inside of the store is bigger than Danny or David could tell. There are only a few shelves still up and aligned, most of them are all dismantled on the floor, all of them completely empty.  
"Go check the windows" says Ellie to David, and he quickly sprints to the dirty blinds partially covering them as Ellie shuts the door behind them.  
The tension of entering unknown territory slowly starts to fade. Danny lowers her bow, still having hold of it, then turns to Ellie.  
"So what would be a safe place to hide in here?" she asks.  
"There's some basement or attic around, I'm not quite sure if it's here or in a shop across the street. I'm gonna look around to see if I can find it. In case I don't, we go to the other side" she says.  
"Alright, I'll have your back" Danny mumbles, and they both search throughout the place.  
A full minute goes by, and they find nothing. Ellie keeps staring at the ceiling to see if she can find any crack that leads to an attic.  
"It's not here" David states, clearly bored. "Let's get to the other side of the street"  
The girls shrug.  
They march to the front door at the exact same pace that they came in, following the exact same procedure: Ellie opens the door, David jumps forward, Danny watches their back. There's nothing on the street but three rusted cars and a cold breeze.  
"What building now, El?" Danny asks.  
She looks up and down the street, taking her time until she can finally find the building she's been thinking of all the time.  
"There! The drugstore down the street!" she points to the far right. "Let's keep it low until we get there" she says, to which both Danny and David just nod and start pushing forwards. They get moving carefully, completely alert to any different sound, but the street is quiet as a graveyard.  
Ellie feels something weird, as if an ice cube is being forced down her throat. Something like... fear, uncertainty.  
Danny taps her shoulder to check if she's ok.  
"You cool, Ellie?"  
"yeah, yeah" Ellie just shrugs it off. "Let's continue, we're almost there" she points out, trying to pass some confidence. But that cold feeling starts sending waves of shivers down her spine.

"There's something wrong..."

She shakes her head slightly, not letting David or Dan notice her inquietude.

"Faster, faster!"

Her mind keeps warning her, but she won't listen. She's had enough of paranoia smothering her rationality to say "yes" to any of it right now.

"There's nothing wrong!" she tells herself.  
"THEY. ARE. COMING!"

 

She looks back in a flash just as three motorcycles, with two men each, roar at the opposite end of the street, speeding up towards them, shortening the distance every milisecond.

"RUN!" Ellie shouts, and she's caught completely off guard when something hits her from her back.  
"ELLIE, BEHIND YOU" David screams, putting three bullets through the skull of the infected that managed to reach her, but not bite her or anything.  
"COME ON, COME WITH ME" Danny screams to both of them, trying to grab Ellie by her collar, but more infected come from the driveway on the house behind them.  
"THERE'S TOO MANY OF THEM" Ellie hears David crying, as he disappears from her sight. Everywhere she looks, she sees them, tons and tons of infected coming after her.  
"ELLIE" she hears Danny's voice fading among the infected's groans.

"YOU HAVE TO RUN" her mind keeps shouting at her. She looks back at the end of the street. The bikers are not more than two houses away now.  
"RUN"

She spins on her heels, headed for the first house that comes in her field of view. She runs for the doorknob, pulling it, pushing it, twisting it. Nothing. The doors are all locked.

"DAMN IT" she curses, daring to take a peek over her shoulder, only to find the bikers slowly turning their motorcycles around, fleeing at the very sight of the horde of infected coming from every direction.  
"SHIT, SHIT, SHIT" she looks at the backyard. A waist-height wooden fence separates the house from the next block of houses behind it.  
No time to think.  
She runs for the fence, vaulting over it and landing on the backyard of the next house and immediately going back to running. She sprints through the garage, no sign of infected on this block, but the many that cornered her, Danny and David are still on her tail.  
"QUICK, QUICK"  
She crosses the street as fast as she can, not even considering stopping to check if there are any safe houses around. Next house comes, another house goes. She jumps fence after fence until her lungs can't take the lack of oxygen anymore.  
They are burning. One more fence. She hasn't stopped to count, but she's probably five blocks away now. Another wooden fence comes running towards her. She leaps over it, her legs shaking like a blender. Then she falls face to the ground. Her ears buzz from the collapse. Her head hurts like hell. She needs to get up, but her entire body begs to rest.  
"YOU GOTTA STAND UP"

She puts one hand on the floor, then the next one, and the very next second, she's down on all fours.  
Her throat feels like it's on fire. She can taste the iron of her blood flooding her mouth.  
"GRAB A GUN"  
She reaches for the revolver in her belt. Her bow is not effective in a situation like that.  
She stands up as fast as she can, almost fainting from the sudden blood pressure change.  
Her legs are about to give up. She has no option but to kneel. So she does. Then she hears the roar.

"OH, NO"  
She glimpses a motorcycle coming down the street. She even urges to stand back up, thinking it will come for her, but when she looks back at the two bikers getting off, she realises they're looking another way.  
They run into a tiny shop in front of them.  
Ellie takes her time to look back and see she's lost the infected.  
"But why the hell are they entering that place?!"

She manages to stand up, still a bit dizzy from the fall. Just in time to hear the gunshots.  
"BOOM"  
The first biker falls dead to the ground, a red hole digged on his forehead.  
The second biker even tries to grab his gun, but not in time to dodge or react to the second shot coming at him.  
"BOOM"  
Down he goes.

Ellie's heart drowns in joy.  
"That's GOTTA BE DAVID! OR DANNY!" she sprints across the street, vaulting over the dead bodies, entering the shop and pushing the door open like a thunder's cracked it open.  
"DANNY?!" she shouts, just as a shot zips a few inches past her right ear.

"THAT'S NOT DANNY"  
She goes prone at the blink of an eye, taking cover behind a fallen shelf.

The shop goes completely silent.  
All she can hear is her heartbeat and her loud breath.

"THAT'S NOT DANNY NOR DAVID, BUT THEY CAN'T BE ENEMIES IF THEY'VE SHOT THE BIKERS"

Ellie breaths.  
"TALK TO THEM! THEY'RE GONNA COME AND SHOOT YOU IF YOU JUST STAND THERE AND DON'T SHOW YOU'RE NOT THE ENEMY"

She exhales heavily, licking her lips.  
She breaths, counting to five.  
Then she shouts "HEY!"

"BZZZZZZZZ"  
Another shot zaps through the air, now hitting a window two or three meters away.  
"They... missed?"

"STAY BACK, I'M WARNING YOU"  
A rough voice breaks through the room, telling Ellie she should stay exactly where she is if she means to go back to her bed and put on some warm pair of socks tonight.

"I'M... I'M NOT WITH THEM, THE BIKERS YOU'VE JUST SHOT" she yells.  
"STAY WHERE YOU ARE"  
"I'M NOT GONNA HURT YOU, I'M LOOKING FOR MY FRIENDS" Ellie tries to put one hand up as a sign of surrender, but another bullet is laid on the wall in front of her.  
"I'VE GOT A HELL LOT OF AMMO IF YOU WANNA PLAY, KID!"

"Kid?!"  
Ellie can't tell how old the foe at the other end of the shop is, or even if it's a man or a girl, all she knows is that they are probably just as scared as she is. They NEED to cooperate.  
She breaths.

"HEY, LISTEN TO ME, I KNOW YOU'RE SCARED AND, TRUST ME, I'M CRAPPING MY PANTS JUST AS MUCH AS YOU ARE, BUT WE GOTTA WORK TOGETHER IF WE WANNA LEAVE THIS PLACE!" she states, waiting for a response. But she only gets silence.  
Well, at least it's not gunshots.

"MY... MY NAME IS ELLIE. ELLIE WILLIAMS. I LIVE IN A VILLAGE A FEW MINUTES AWAY FROM HERE, I CAME HERE ON A RECKON MISSION BECAUSE OF GUNSHOTS THIS MORNING. WERE YOU INVOLVED WITH THAT?"  
More silence.  
"LISTEN. I KNOW YOU THINK YOU CANNOT TRUST ME, AND, BELIEVE ME, I'M THINKING THE EXACT SAME THING RIGHT NOW. I DON'T KNOW IF I SHOULD HAVE TRUSTED YOU WITH MY NAME, BUT WE MIGHT BE EACH OTHER'S LAST RESOURCE HERE. PLEASE, LET ME GET CLOSER"  
Silence.  
Ellie's hands start shaking.  
"ARE... ARE YOU STILL THERE?"  
An eternity of silence, then a heavy exhalation.  
"YEAH"  
"OK, GOOD" Ellie replies. "CAN I ASK YOUR NAME?"  
"PUT YOUR GUN DOWN AND KICK IT TO ME" the voice answers.  
"Well..." she whispers. "You could have just said 'no'"  
"THE REVOLVER" the stranger insists.  
"ALRIGHT. Okay. I'm putting it down, see?" she says as she does so. The revolver touches the ground and she slowly puts herself up, then proceeds to kick the gun towards them.  
She watches the gun slide across the shop, hitting a counter on the opposite end.  
"TURN AROUND" the stranger demands. "AND PUT YOUR HANDS UP WHERE I CAN SEE THEM"  
Ellie obeys, huffing.  
"Cute. You're gonna shoot me with my own gun?"  
"COME WALKING. SLOWLY. CAREFUL NOT TO TRIP ON ANYTHING"  
"Okay, are you fucking kidding me? You want me to walk backwards?! What for?!!"  
"DO IT" the voice demands.  
Ellie rolls her eye and starts walking backwards towards the counter. Four, five, six... After the ninth step, she looks back at the door she came from, and it cracks open to reveal the figure of a fat, bald man coming their direction.  
"GET DOWN" the stranger shouts, pulling Ellie by her ankles.  
She falls but to the ground and does not even have time to protest, since the air is suddenly filled with endless submachine gun bullets coming from the door.

"GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRR" the white man roars from the door.  
Five seconds and the gunshots are replaced with a shy click.

"THE CLIP. HE'S RUN OUT OF AMMO"  
Ellie opens her mouth to tell the stranger to shoot him, but she hears the familiar sound of her revolver being shot, and then the blunt noise of a heavy corpse hitting the ground.  
"OOH, MY GOODNESS" she exhales, starting to kneel.  
The stranger grabs her by her shirt, pulling her back to cover.  
"THERE'S MORE OF THEM"  
Ellie feels the stranger standing up, she quickly turns to their direction to see where they're going.  
When she looks at the door, she can see the three bikers there are left breaking through the door. She thinks of asking for her gun, but the stranger is too scared and stubborn to give it back.  
She looks down at the ground to find a metal pipe lying by her side. She reaches for her backpack to check if the bow is still there. Five arrows left.  
"Well. Guess that's what we have for now" she says as she grabs the pipe, sprinting while crouching to the next shelf.  
More gunshots fill the air. The whole shop feels like some horrific heavy metal concert with nothing but a drunk drummer hitting the plates over and over again.  
She grabs her bow and tries to focus her hearing to spot one of the bikers.  
"TO THE LEFT"  
She releases the arrow fast enough to hit him in the left eye right before he could hit her with a bat, the man freezing in surprise and then crumbling down like a sand castle, hitting the floor and still shaking from his last brain waves.

"BOOM" another revolver shot, but this one is not followed by any sound of fat-corpse hitting the ground.  
She pulls another arrow.  
She can hear one of the bikers run towards the stranger to her right. She stands up and runs to them, with her bow ready, but she doesn't even have to shoot since she hears another shot and then blood splash on the walls.  
Only one more left.  
She grabs her pipe, readying it and getting ready to stand up and go for the last enemy, when she hears a mixture of misleading sound from a bare-knuckle fight. She stands up, trying to find where the two of them are, but she sees nothing but a blur of them disappearing behind another shelf.

"RUN, ELLIE"  
She runs towards the shelf with her pipe up, she hears another body hit the floor just as she brings the pipe down. It stops mid-air.

"IT'S ME"  
The stranger replies.  
For the first time since she walked into the shop, she can see him. Her. Them. No name and now no face.  
The stranger stands up quickly, patting the dust off of their hoodie, their face covered by a navy blue mask.  
Ellie glances at them. She scans the person standing right in front of her for answers, but she isn't able to find anything but deep dark brown eyes staring down at her, keeping unbroken contact.


	2. Chapter 2

"Man!" Ellie drops the pipe to the ground, then leans her back on the shelf behind her. "I could almost swear we were gonna get killed!"  
The stranger keeps watching her while standing next to the last corpse, not gifting her with a single word.  
Ellie sighs, closing her eyes for a long second. As soon as she opens them back, she looks around to find that the stranger's made their way back to the counter they were at when Ellie walked in the store. They're now crouched, rummaging in what seemed like a backpack.  
"So you're... You're gonna loot them or what?" Ellie says as she comes closer, wiping off the sweat from her forehead.  
The annoying clink of the stranger's belongings being turned over suddenly stops. They raise their eyes from their backpack and glsnce vaguely at Ellie. They seem to think for a second, then just wave their right hand in the air as sign of "they're all yours".  
Ellie considers turning around, but stops half-way. She goes back to watching the unknown peer. They're back at searching their bag, intentionally oblivious to Ellie's confusion.  
"You want me to just loot them and leave, not gonna give two flying shits about the whole getting-jumped-by-some-freaks-and-surviving-together thing that just happened?"  
The stranger stands up in a flash.  
Funny how only now Ellie takes note of their height. She's somewhere around 1,73m, and the peer is not more than 5 centimeters taller. "Still taller" she thinks.  
Wearing black worn out jeans, brown combat boots, a dark grey jacket with a hood - so as not to allow any glimpse of their hair, no chance of identification, Ellie figures - and the previously mentioned dark blue mask - made of acrylic polymer and no sign of customization -, their chest goes up and down from their heavy-yet-impatient breathing.  
Ellie takes a steady step forward, positioning herself just a few inches from them. Time seems to slow down an awful lot. Ellie is given nothing but silence and a deep death-glare.  
"Help me find my friends" she asks.  
No response.  
"Please"  
They keep staring at her for other five long seconds.  
Then an eye roll.  
_YAY!_  
Ellie struggles not to celebrate.  
"To make it clear" the stranger goes back to whispering at a stupid volume, apparently not to give away their voice tone or gender. "I'm not swerving from my route" they slowly kneel to grab their backpack. "I'll have your back..." they pull the zippers together until the bag's closed. "As long as your friends are within walking distance from my destination" they stand up, indifferently giving their back to Ellie as they march to the back door.  
"And how far would that be, if me asking you doesn't make you drop dead?"  
The stranger huffs. "About half an hour if we keep heading south"  
"SOUTH?" Ellie laughs, opening her eyes and arms wide. "The next ten kilometers are crowded with runners, clickers and stalkers, and my settlement is far north, to start with!"  
"Then good luck on your journey" the stranger leaves, taking nothing but the fat guy's machine gun.  
Ellie gets red as a pepper as she watches them turn their back and push the door open, actually ready to leave without her or any of the loot they've conquered.  
"SOUNDS PERFECT TO ME" she yells. They stop at the door, and even though they have their back turned to her, Ellie can tell they're rolling their eyes. "You know you ain't gonna make it alone, don't you?" "Boy, trust me, you know nothing about me. I've been through more than you think, and if a pathetic asshole like you managed to survive on their own, I ain't the one you can call an exception" The stranger now turns to her, glaring straight at her. "You talk like you weren't about to bleed your lungs out when you entered this place. I could tell you'd been running for ages, that's gotta mean there's a herd of infected coming our way. You're batshit crazy if you consider yourself smart for trying to go back the same path you took to get here" "Still" Ellie replies. "I gotta get to my friends. I ain't following you" The stranger chuckles, still no sign of their true voice, just neutral laugh and whisper. "Like I said" they salute her like a soldier would do. "Wish you good luck on your way back" they say as they go back to leaving. "WAIT" she shouts, her voice twisted from anger.  
The stranger stops at the door, crossing their arms and glaring back at her.  
Ellie thinks of backfiring their words, but she's been frustrated enough from their silence treatment. That'd be too much to have for other 10 kilometers.  
And they were right. Trying to go back now was just not the smartest thing to do. She should create some distance and let the infected scatter, then try and come back a few hours later. And the stranger - five minutes and she's already grown tired of not having a name - could still be a threat to the community. Ellie's not sure if following them is that much of a smart choice either, but finding out where their hideout is can definitely even the score, in case they think of going after her once she's done waiting for the proper time to go back to looking for her friends. She picks what's left from the dead bikers, then proceeds to follow the stranger outside the store. "Lead the fucking way"


	3. Chapter 3

Thirty minutes have passed since they left the Shop. Ellie has been checking her watch every two or three minutes - yeah, they still have battery for watches - since there's nothing more entertaining to do.  
The stranger, whom Ellie's just decided to call Bob - not like she's told them yet - hasn't said a single word since their "Wish you good luck on your way back".  
They're now marching down what seems to have been an avenue, judging by how hard it's getting to see the top of the buildings around them.  
"Are we downtown?" she asks, bending her neck to see if she can find a roof.  
The stranger nods, five or six meters ahead. They take other ten steps, then slowly stop in front of a commercial building, turning around.  
"Here we are" they cross their arms on top of their chest, tilting their head to the left as to introduce Ellie to their safe house.  
Ellie steps back a little to read the facade: DOM LIRO - ITALIAN CUISINE.

"WOOOOOOW!!!!!!" Ellie shouts in faked surprise. "Wow, Bob, you're buying me spaghetti on our first date?" she takes her hands to her mouth to fake excitement. "I'm sorry to say that, but we post-apocalyptic chicks tend to take that as a proposal, so you shouldn't be bringing me here unless, uh, you know" Ellie puts one of her hands up and waves it in the air multiple times, then putting the other hand on her hips.  
"Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh oooh, oh" Ellie starts to sing.  
"Oh, hell no" the stranger uncrosses their arms. "Please, tell me you're not doing what I think you're doing"  
Ellie starts singing louder.  
"If you liked it, then you should have put a ring on it"  
"LEGIT?"  
Ellie turns around, focused solely on her coreography.  
"Damn" they whisper. "Should have left you at that God damn shop when I had the chance" the stranger mumbles.  
Ellie continues her dance.  
They just keep watching until they run out of patience.  
"Ok, ok, alright" they shout in the most measured tone they can get. "First of all. Beyoncé?!!" they reach for Ellie's shoulder, interrupting her dance. "Now, second of all. Bob?!"  
Ellie stops wiggling her hips.  
"I beg your pardon, my dear husband?"

The stranger laughs, letting go of her shoulders, but keeping unbroken eye contact.  
"Yeah, I mean, you haven't introduced yourself, so I figured you'd let me choose your name, you know? Like we're gonna choose our kids' names, right?" she continues with the sarcasm.

The stranger starts pathing to the doors to the restaurant, shrugging at Ellie's joke.  
"Fair enough" they mumble. "I'm just sort of surprised to find you're, you know" they shrug again. "Straight?" they say, disappearing into the restaurant.

 

Ellie's eyes go wide, partially because of surprise, but mostly beacuse of the sudden realization that she bet on the right horse.  
The stranger's a girl?!

[...]

"Hold on a sec, I didn't say I was straight" Ellie bursts the door open.  
The stranger shrugs.  
"Close the door, please"  
"Oh, good! So you do speak more than five times a day!" Ellie turns around and gently closes the door. "Well, now that we're here, is it okay if I start asking a few questions?".  
The stranger is now disappearing in the shadows by the kitchen on the opposite end of the establishment. They chuckle.  
"Make yourself at home, officer"  
"Ok" Ellie runs to catch up with them. "Alright, you don't feel like sharing your name. I get it. I'm actually fine with it. Should I just call you, I don't know, Mary, then?"  
"What makes you think I'm a girl?" the stranger replies, chuckling.  
Ellie stops in confusion. They're now reaching the backdoor of the kitchen, which seems to lead to a large corridor that connects the restaurant to the other side of the building.  
Of course the restaurant is not the only place in there. Ellie managed to count 6 or 7 floors besides the ground floor as they walked into the restaurant. That means there are apartments in there, and the entrance to the residential side ought to be on another street. Ellie stops the math for a second and tries to focus on the conversation.  
"Well, first of all, you've just mocked me for allegedly being..." Ellie raises her hands as to gesture a quote-unquote " _straight_ And if I was joking about getting married to you, thinking you _were_ a dude, then that's gotta mean you're not".  
"Well thought" the stranger replies, pushing open a heavy iron door that takes them straight to a wide hall - the kind of halls you'd find at the entrance of any condominium - with two elevators to their left and staircases beyond them. The stranger closes the door as Ellie enters the hall, then proceeds to go up the stairs. "But..." they continue "I could still be a gay man, surprised by the fact that you too like boys even though you give off some lesbian vibe".  
Ellie frowns her eyebrows and starts pushing forward faster.  
"Excuse me! _Lesbian vibe?_ Ok, I must admit. You do sound like a gay guy that doesn't know shit about gay chicks"  
The stranger laughs, holding the handrail as they go up one more floor.  
"Ok, then second of all" Ellie continues. "Your voice? What's the point of containing your voice if you ain't trying to hide something like your gender by doing so?"  
They let go of the rail, opening their arms mockingly, but not turning around.  
"Has it ever occured to you that this might be my real voice?" they start speaking a bit louder, almost in the standard tone of voice.  
"Wow" Ellie thinks. Still pretty neutral. Their voice is really balanced. Calm. Probably the softest she has heard so far in her life. Not as in feminine, but peaceful. As if she couldn't break through it to read their temper.  
Ellie watches them go up another set of stairs. She intentionally falls behind a bit, until she can see them from the floor below.  
The blue mask stares down at her, slowing down on their way upstairs, but not completely halting.  
She can see their dark brown eyes through the two holes in the mask, gazing discretely into her eyes.  
"We have 5 floors more to go" they state.  
"Is it on the top floor?" Ellie asks gently.  
The stranger nods in response, continuing their walk.  
Ellie goes back to following them.  
"So, how am I supposed to call you?" Ellie asks.  
The stranger sighs out loud.  
"Just, don't..." they speak very, very low.  
"Don't what? Don't call you?" she insists. "What if we are in danger and I need to warn you or shit like that?"  
"Sis..." they continue. Judging by the numbers on the doors that pass by - 501, 502 - Ellie can tell they're on the 5th floor. "Call me whatever you want" they state.  
"Blue-mask-mystery-pal sounds good to you?" she jokes. The stranger laughs.  
"Let's keep it like this" the stranger replies. They're now on the 6th floor, but they stop before they reach the stairs to the last block since it's blocked in an unusual way. There's a wide wooden board blocking the way to the next floor half-way up the stairs, but it's not just put up like a door - it's been intentionally laid down as to form a roof, some sort of reverse trapdoor. Ellie squints at the gadget for a second. "Call me... A"  
"What?"  
"A"  
"You mean 'A' as in the first letter of the alphabet?"  
The stranger laughs.  
"Yeah, that one"  
"Like, the one that sounds just the same as an 'HEY', in case I try to warn you about something?"  
"Yup"  
"That's stupid as fuck!" Ellie complains as, well, _A_ opens the trapdoor.  
Surprisingly, they don't actually push the board until it goes up like a normal trapdoor would. They just slide it open, pulling it towards their own direction.  
"What sort of dark engineering is that?!" Ellie asks.  
"You see, if I just made it a normal trapdoor, the infected would sooner or later manage to open it simply by forcing it. Fun fact, now: infected don't actually slide stuff"  
"That's..." Ellie glances at the seventh floor above the trapdoor in awe. "That's just brilliant"  
A smiles. They do actually smile. Ellie can see it by the way their mask goes up a little, maybe because of their cheeks. Could they have blushed?!  
"Thanks" A replies.  
"Did you plan all of that by yourself?"  
"Yeah. I mean, most of the stuff you're gonna see around" they wave as to encourage Ellie to go upstairs, and so she does.  
"Got enough food stashed for you not to starve on the way back" they mention.  
Oh.  
The way back.  
For a moment, Ellie has almost forgotten that she was actually going the wrong direction. Ammo, food, and some time for the infected to scatter. That's what she's trying to gather by following them - A.  
She tries not to think too much about the fact that she might be enjoying the chat.  
A crouches and reaches for an improvised handle on the board, then slides the trapdoor closed.  
"There you go" they say, patting the dust off of their clothes. Ellie watches them stand up, then shyly glancing at them before they lead the way to the last line of apartments ahead.  
They pull the knob to apartment 705, to the far left.  
As soon as the door opens and Ellie is able to see what's inside, her mouth drops to the ground, in shock.  
Right in what used to be the living room of that apartment, four shelves full of canned goods, bottled water and toilet paper feast her view.  
"You have toilet paper" Ellie cries, dropping to her knees and hugging five packs of them at once.  
A laughs out loud.  
"Damn, I thought you said you were turned on by spaghetti"  
"YOU HAVE SPAGHETTI TOO?" Ellie asks, pushing the packages back in the shelves.  
"Actually, I do" they say, pointing at a table covered with more food in the kitchen.  
Ellie stands up and starts walking around the apartment. A crosses their arms then leans on a wall nearby.  
"Take as much as you need"  
Ellie turns around as she picks a bottle of water.  
"Nah, water's just fine. I don't wanna cause any trouble"  
A is still leaned against the wall, observing Ellie in silence.  
For a moment, actually, they seem to be both analyzing each other. Until it gets kinda awkward.  
A looks away and so does Ellie, scratching the back of her head, then turning to a large window by the living room, completely uncovered. She can see the sun setting in the distance, so, _beautiful_ , bathing all the other buildings in orange,   
Then it gets to her.  
Sunset.  
"Oh, shit" Ellie curses.  
"What?"  
"It's getting dark, I should get going" she stands up, going for her backpack.  
"Wait, Ellie"  
She stops with one foot mid-air, not too distant from A.  
That's the first time they say her name.  
And it hits her like a punch to the stomach how beautiful they made her name sound.  
"Yes?" Ellie stutters.  
"We've just arrived. You know it's not safe yet. If you wanna stay for the night, you won't be disturbing. I'm leaving tomorrow in the morning"  
"Oh, so" Ellie stares at them in confusion. "You don't live here?"  
"I..." they seem a bit uncomfortable to explain any further, but they do it anyways. "This is just like a checkpoint. As I said, I live far more north, and"  
A's voice is abruptly interrupted by a loud buzz coming from their backpack.

"Alô, filha, tá aí?"  
Ellie frowns her eyebrows in confusion.  
"Sorry, just a second" A says as they kneel to grab a tiny walkie-talkie in their backpack.  
Ellie watches closely.  
"Oi, fala"

Ellie is all "????" at the moment. What sort of language is that?  
The conversation goes on.  
"Tá onde?"  
"Aqui no Dom Liro, devo sair amanhã de manhã"  
"Tá tudo bem por aí?"  
"Sim, tá tudo tranquilo"  
Ellie backs up a little bit as to give A and the man on the radio some privacy, but ends up bumping into a chair, causing a huge noise to flood the entire room, then just deafening silence.

"O que foi isso?"  
"Não foi nada, eu só, tropecei numa cadeira"  
"Al..."  
"Não"  
"Oi?"  
"Não fala meu nome"  
"A..." the man's voice gets a bit more strict. "Tem mais alguém com você?"  
A sighs.  
"Sim, pai. Eu acabei encontrando uma menina, estava sendo atacada por um grupo de motoqueiros. A gente meio que se salvou, e... Bom, ela mora ao sul, mas haviam muitos infectados, então ofereci que ela viesse pegar comida e passasse a noite até que fosse seguro voltar. Ela vai embora até amanhã de manhã, eu prometo"  
More silence from the man on the radio.  
"Pai? Tá aí?"  
"Esteja aqui até meio dia. Precisamos de você. E por favor, não deixe que ela te siga"  
A sighs again.  
"Tudo bem, pai. Deixa comigo"  
"Te amo" the man replies, in a calmer tone of voice.  
"Também te amo" A answers, turning the radio off.

Ellie is now intensely staring at them, glaring deep in their eyes as in search for answers. A looks up at her, clearly aware of the fact that that whole conversation sparkled a dozen of question marks all over her brain.  
"That was my group" A explains.  
"You... you speak Spanish?" she asks. A laughs.  
"Not exactly, though it's quite similar"  
Ellie nods, crossing her arms.  
"Alright... So... I got it right, your name is Alo, am I right?"  
A drops their bag to the ground, chuckling hard, gradually evolving into hysterical laughter, to the point where they have to bend their back and hug themselves to try and catch some breath.  
"What, what's so funny?"  
A can barely speak through the tears the laughter has formed in their eyes.  
"That's... That's Portuguese for 'hello'" they are now laughing out loud.  
Ellie blushes, uncrossing her arms, taking them to her hips.  
"Ah. Ha-ha. Yeah, go ahead. Laugh your ass off! As if I would ever be able to tell that 'aô' is Portuguese for... WHATEVER" Ellie crosses her arms again, then starts wandering in the room.  
"Ok. I'm sorry" A says, still shaking a bit from laughing, slowly sliding one hand beneath the mask to clean the tears.  
"Sure, Alô. That's how I'mma call you now, I don't give two shits if that's your name or not" Ellie states angrily.  
"That's fine with me" A answers.  
A long silence takes over the room.  
"Wait!" Ellie's face brightens up a little bit. The walkie-talkie! "Hey, that piece of radio you have there, do you think I could use to contact my people?!" she asks.  
"Hm, yeah, depending on how far they are" they reply.  
"They're like, all the way back and then five or six kilometers beyond that" Ellie explains.  
A stares back at her, a bit uncomfortable.  
"That's... that's a bit far, but we can try" they confirm. "What's the frequency for their station?"  
Ellie looks at them as if they'd just asked what the gravity on the moon times five is.  
"You don't know it?" A asks.  
"I have no fucking idea"  
"Great" A replies, still grabbing the walkie-talkie, then shyly walking towards where Ellie's standing.  
"See" they point to a tiny button on top of the device, then start to roll it until they can hear voices from the mouthpiece. "We're gonna have to try all the frequencies until we get a response"  
First buzz, A presses a larger button on the side of the walkie-talkie.  
"Anyone there? Over"  
No response.  
They start rolling the button again. One more buzz.  
"Hello? Anyone there?"  
Silence.  
They roll the button one more time. Five seconds go by until they hear another buzz.  
"Hello, anyone listening?" A asks. Still no response.  
They look back at Ellie, a bit hopeless, but continue changing through channels until a fourth buzz is heard.  
"Anyone? Over"  
More silence.  
Ellie stares at what's visible of their eyes through the mask, not sure if they're ever gonna get a response.  
"Anyone?" A tries once again.  
"Hello? Anyone listening?"  
Silence.  
Then a quick sign of a female's voice comes from the device.  
"WAIT, I RECOGNIZE THAT VOICE" Ellie shouts.  
"Hello, can you hear me?" A asks.  
Lots of interference. Ellie's ears feel like they're about to bleed.  
Then silence.  
"Yes, I can hear you" a muffled voice replies.  
"OH MY GOD, THAT'S NICOLE" Ellie grabs the walkie-talkie. "NICOLE, IS THAT YOU?"  
"yes, Ellie?!!!" the woman on the other side answers.  
"YES, IT'S ME! WE GOT JUMPED BY SOME INFECTED AND, AND A GROUP OF MEN ON THE WAY AND DAVID, DANNY AND I WERE SEPARATED" Ellie can barely breathe as she speaks.  
"Yeah, yeah, Danny told me!" Nicole replies.  
"DANNY?!" Ellie asks, tears of joy quickly forming on her eyes.  
"Yeah, they found their way back, and, Ellie, we could almost swear you were dead!"  
"No, I'm not!" Ellie shouts, then she overhears an angry voice taking hold of the radio device on the other side of the line.  
"Is that her? Is it Ellie?" Danny asks Nicole.  
"DANNY, YOU BITCH" Ellie shouts. "YOU'RE ALIVE! I WAS CRAPPING MY PANTS THINKING YOU WERE DEAD"  
"NO, YOU SLUT" Danny replies. "WE'RE SAFE AND SOUND, WE LOOKED AROUND FOR YOU BUT YOU VANISHED RIGHT AFTER THOSE BIKERS SHOWED UP! WHERE ARE YOU?!"  
"Well, I" Ellie starts, then looks at A to see if it's ok for her to continue the explanation. "I found someone when I was trying to get back to you guys. Turns out I was swarmed by infected and also those bikers were on my tail, so I had to flee and I ended up in this shop, and, I found another survivor, they're helping me now."  
"They?" Danny asks. "Is it a person or two?"  
"It's..." Ellie answers. "It's complicated. She won't tell me their gender, but I'm quite sure it's a girl"  
A rolls their eyes.  
"Anyways, they're helping me out, we're at one of their safe houses, there's plenty food here and I'll get some sleep before I come back home first thing tomorrow morning"  
"Don't you dare come back all alone, Williams" Danny demands. "Stay exactly where you are, we're gonna gather some people to go pick you up, but don't leave them, like, whoever this person is, alright?"  
Ellie looks back at A as to ask them if that would be ok.  
A looks back at her.  
"Ellie... I'm, I'm sorry, but I have to continue my journey tomorrow, I can't just wait for them with you here"  
"But"  
"I CAN'T" A shouts.  
"Can I, just, like, come with you, then? I mean, you have the walkie-talkie, I can't just stay here by myself with nothing to warn them in case I need to leave the building if more infected come" Ellie explains.  
"Ellie?!" Danny's voice requests a response on the radio.  
"I, I can't. I'm sorry, Ellie, but I'll need you to stay. My folks - my group, we're very secluded, and that would be the end of me if I just showed someone where we're staying. I brought you here, that's how far I can take someone with me, but you'll have to stay"  
"You can't just leave me alone!" Ellie shouts. "Can't you just ask your people to wait a bit longer until I'm gone for you to start your way back there?"  
"No, Ellie" A whispers softly, almost like a plea. "I have to be there tomorrow morning"  
"Then I'm coming with you" Ellie states.  
"No way, they would shoot you at first sight" A yells.  
"Just tell them I'm with you!"  
"They already know that, but we have zero tolerance to strangers, Ellie, I've pushed my limits bringing you here"  
"So, do you want me to just stay here, no walkie-talkie, no way to tell anyone if I get swarmed by infected, with nothing but a wooden trapdoor to keep me safe?!"  
"No, that's not what I want, but I can't do anything else for you, Ellie" they insist. "I'm so very sorry"  
Ellie exhales heavily.  
"Can you at least explain them how to get here?" she asks, slowly giving the radio to A.  
"Of course" they press the button to broadcast. "Hey, can you hear me?" they ask.  
"Loud and clear" Danny replies impatiently.  
A then proceeds to give the directions to their hideout. Ellie can't help but watch them.  
She looks around the living room, then stands up and wanders around the apartment. Everything is pretty tidy. Even more than her own bedroom back at Tommy's.  
She looks back at A, who's now slowly pathing down the right, headed to the kitchen. They grab a water bottle and open it as they answer some of Danny's question about their current location.  
Ellie watches all of their moves.  
Danny and the others are probably coming sooner than 9a.m. the next morning. She just wishes A would wait a little bit.  
Not like they would die if they arrived one or two hours later than expected, right? A stares at the bottle, then back at Ellie.  
Ellie doesn't get the message, so A turns around, until they have their back turned to her, and quickly takes off the mask to drink their water.  
Before Ellie can take a step, the mask's already back on their face, and they're turning around and putting the radio down.  
The conversation's all over. Danny wrote down all the directions, and they'll be coming for her first thing tomorrow morning.  
"They care about you" A says, headed for the bedrooms.  
"I can't stay here alone, A" Ellie insists.  
"Why not? This place is safer than most of the military zones in the country" they state.  
"Because I don't wanna _be_ alone" Ellie grabs A's arm, a bit surprised by her own audacity in doing so. "Please..." she insists. "Let me come with you. I promise I'll fall back when Danny contact us and tell us she's close, you won't have to take me near your secret hideout or near your group"  
A's breathing becomes a bit unsteady. Ellie can hear their heartbeats kicking louder in their chest.  
"I can't" they mumble in a miserable tone, giving off the impression that A is about to cry. "Please, don't ask me to do any more of that. And in the morning, when I wake up, please, don't follow me" they state.  
Ellie gulps, holding back her tears.  
"You ain't telling me your name?"  
"Please, don't ask me any of that, Ellie" A insists.  
They lay their hands on Ellie's so she lets go of their arm.  
"I'll show you your room, there's a mattress there and some fresh pieces of clothing, pick whatever you please, I'll get you some blankets in case it gets cold at night"  
"But, I've counted" Ellie says. "There's only one mattress. Where would you sleep?"  
"Don't worry about me. I can sleep on the floor and, besides, there are other 6 apartments" they explain.  
"Wait, you think I'm going to kill you in your sleep or something?"  
A laughs.  
"No, it's not what I meant. I'm just. I just wanna give you some space so you don't feel like I'm watching you" they say.  
Ellie thinks of it for a moment, indiscreetly gazing at A.  
"I'm okay with you watching me or... staying around, if that's what you're worried about"  
"I think we've... we've already bonded enough" A states, slowly starting to back up.  
Ellie looks at them from where she's standing.  
"Alright, ok, so you're all like, Miss Unattached, Miss Don't get Near me Or You'll be Hurt, yeah? Did I get it right?" Ellie shouts.  
"Actually, you did" A replies, stopping by the door to the hall.  
They stare at each other for other five long seconds, until A speaks again.  
"I'mma get you those blankets, be back in a flash"  
"Take your time" Ellie mumbles. "I'll be right here" she says, as she lets herself fall on the mattress.


End file.
